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Recently, I was contacted by a Journalism student at the University of Kent in Canterbury, England.  She asked if I would help her with an assignment about Vincent Van Gogh.  I am certain she is also in isolation and doing classes online now, as are most all universities in this country.  This is a great time for her to contact me, as I am finding myself needing projects on which to focus, beyond my studio practice.

Her questions were thoughtful and, though I am NOT an expert on Van Gogh, working on Loving Vincent peaked my interest in his life and work and I have spent countless hours reading about him and seeing his paintings from life, in books, or online whenever possible.  I thought I would share her questions and my answers with you.  Please enjoy!  My thanks to Rhodri Andrews for seeking my help.

Could you just tell me a bit about what it was like to work on the film Loving Vincent?

Working on Loving Vincent was one of the highlights of my career as a painter.  It was such an honor to have been chosen as one of 125 international artists to work on this project, out of over 5000 applicants!  But, the work was very intense and difficult.  I spent 8-10 hours every day in a small cubicle in Gdansk, Poland at Breakthru Film Studios.  I was there for six months.  Other artists, especially the first painters on the film, mostly Polish, had been there for two years!  The work involved painting scenes in the style of Van Gogh, but with characters moving within the scenes.  Once the “first frame” of the scene was finished, we would take a high-resolution photo of it, then scrape away the parts that would be moving, and repaint for the next frame.  I did 5 scenes for the film, including the iconic scene where Armand throws a stick into the wheatfield and the crows fly away.  That particular scene was 190 frames and took me over a week to finish.  I probably painted over 90 paintings for that scene alone.  Every one second of footage required twelve oil paintings.  As you can imagine, the animation work required patience and intensity; however, the director was also very particular that it be done right and done quickly.  It was exhausting work, but I was very proud of it!

What do you personally think of Vincent as an artist?

I have always been a huge fan of Van Gogh’s work.  He was such a visionary; he is considered the father of modern art.  He had a different way of seeing the world and was true to this, even if it meant that he only sold one work during his lifetime!  I admire that.  He was reviled and unappreciated during his lifetime.  How brave he was to continue to pursue his own artistic path without support, except for his brother, Theo. We take for granted nowadays the wide range of artistic styles that exist.  He even went beyond Impressionism and Pointillism to create his own unique style of painting.

How has Van Gogh influenced you personally?

I have always loved and admired Van Gogh.  During and after the film, I read as much as I could about his life, almost obsessively.  I have personally suffered from depression, although not to the extent that he suffered, of course.  But, I feel that I can relate to his struggles and his desire to say something more with his art.  Currently, I am focusing less on realism in my art and more on exploring the relationship of shapes, values, colors, and paint quality.  Van Gogh has inspired me to look beyond copying what I see.  Vincent himself once said that we are not human cameras…we must paint what we feel.  I often wonder what style of painting he would be doing if he were alive today.  I am certain that he would be growing and changing, exploring new avenues in paint.

The film explores Vincent's mental state quite alot, how good a job do you think the film did in exploring that?

I feel that the film did do a good job on that.  The director, Dorota Kobiela, who is the brainchild of the project, was trained first as a painter in Poland.  She then got into animation and wanted to do a tribute to Van Gogh and his work.  So, she really wanted this to be about his paintings and featuring those, more than a bio-pic. I feel the story they came up with, having Armand Roulin explore what happened to Vincent, was a very creative vehicle by which to feature the work, and to make it come alive through animation.

Why do you think that film is important?

Why did you want to work on it?

These questions are related for me.  I first heard about the film in its beginning stages when they posted some of the initial animated scenes on Facebook.  I had never seen anything like it and was immediately intrigued.  Mostly, because the animation, I could tell, was not done by a computer.  It was obviously hand-animated.  That’s what really attracted me to the project.  It is also what makes this film so ground-breaking and one-of-a-kind. I was disappointed that it did not win the Academy Award for animation.  This film required the skill of actual working artists, painters, to make it.  It showcases our skills.  It required over 65,000 oil paintings to create a full-length animated film; this has never been done before!  I am so proud to have been a part of it, a part of history.

How much of a link do you think there is between mental health and artistry/creativity?

How much of an effect do you think a person's personal troubles has on their artwork?

How different do you think an artist like Van Gogh's work would be without his personal turmoil?

When I was in college, I did a paper on the link between creativity and mental illness.  I do believe that there is a link; however, it is not a causation.  Being mentally ill does not necessarily make you more creative and vica-versa.  Creative people are creative because they tend to think differently.  Artists also tend to be more sensitive to their environments and to be more sensitive in general.  Perhaps this can lead to more of an inward focus and thus to a higher incidence of, say, depression.  But there are so many types of mental illness.  I truly believe that art saved Van Gogh from his mental illness.  If he had not had his art, he may have declined even faster, maybe even dying sooner.  Again, I think that having an overall unique way of looking at the world makes for great artists.  The nature of being an artist requires the ability to be able to spend a great deal of time alone, which can increase feelings of isolation.  I don’t necessarily feel that Van Gogh’s work would have been different had he not been mentally ill.  He probably would have been much more prolific and had a longer life.

What do you think the influence Vincent Van Gogh has had on art as a whole is?

Van Gogh influenced so many artists that came after him, including Edvard Munch, Vuillard, Bonnard, Klimt, Lucien Freud, and others.  In general, I believe that he created a way of thinking for artists that was new.  He opened the doors for exploration in art that ultimately led to abstract expressionism and beyond.  He truly is, to me, the father of all modern art.